BIALIK FOUNDATION
At Bialik, we know that progress thrives in an environment where students are free to challenge, question, experiment and explore - to take risks and take leaps. This is the spirit of Bialik and the very spirit that the Launch Lab is built to instil. With open, collaborative spaces and breakout areas, Launch Lab represents a new approach to learning Science, liberating the students to play and explore. A space to launch into how things work, why things react, who we are and what we will become. A launchpad into the world beyond. Learning Science is understanding and appreciating how the world works. When children discover how things work, they can engage powerfully and meaningfully and use their understanding in dynamic and novel contexts. This is about more than just teaching Science – it is about fuelling curiosity for the world and nurturing the change-makers of tomorrow.
BIALIK FOUNDATION
LAUNCH LAB
BIALIK FOUNDATION
MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL Welcome to the Launch Lab, Bialik College’s new centre for Science. The Launch Lab expands the minds of Bialik students, offering a myriad of opportunities to explore and create in the pure and social sciences. It is an environment which takes learning beyond the laboratory, with an educational vision that inculcates investigation, creation, collaboration and ambition – skills and dispositions critical to life beyond the school gate. Bialik College is renowned locally as Melbourne’s oldest Jewish school, communally as Melbourne’s inclusive Pluralistic Jewish school, nationally as the highest achieving school in Victoria and globally for our Cultures of Thinking – an approach to learning that is in thousands of schools worldwide and whose origin is the research partnership between Bialik College and the University of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. The Launch Lab encapsulates all that we know and understand about learning. It is a space designed to inspire and engage our students and educators from Prep to Year 12.
It is with great pride that we celebrate our graduates making their mark on the world as leaders in Science, Engineering and Technology as tech-entrepreneurs, medical professors, academics and more. Imagine the possibilities for future generations of Bialik Launch Lab graduates. Our school motto is Step Forth With Courage. At Bialik College we nurture our students to be brave learners. We encourage our children to question, challenge and explore. The Launch Lab is not just a building, it is a centre for learning, fuelling imagination and curiosity. The Launch Lab stands on the shoulders of giants as a voyage in the present with an eye on the future.
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“It is an environment which takes learning beyond the laboratory, with an educational vision that inculcates investigation, creation, collaboration and ambition.”
Thank you for joining us on our journey. Jeremy Stowe-Lindner Principal
Science has helped shape Jewish identity for centuries. At Bialik, of our three ‘houses’, two are named after great Jewish scientific pioneers – Henrietta Szold, one of the founders of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, and the biochemist Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first President. These visionaries were highly educated, communally minded and scientifically inspired to make the world a better place, to improve community and to expand the vision and vistas of the Jewish world.
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Building works to commence May 2022
BIALIK FOUNDATION
Our existing Science labs were built more than 25 years ago for a secondary school half the size of Bialik today. Although some fixtures have been replaced and minor updates have occurred, the current environment does not reflect all that we know about teaching Science today and lacks the flexibility required for our 21st century graduates.
LAUNCH LAB
A PLACE TO EXPLORE THE UNKNOWN BIALIK FOUNDATION
As a Cultures of Thinking school, Science at Bialik values the process rather than just the final outcome. Science is the perfect vessel for ‘making thinking visible’ through practical and theoretical means. As a department we value a practical, hands on, collaborative approach where anyone can be an expert, both students and staff. The Launch Lab will allow us to explore the cultural force of Environment in depth as we facilitate the best learning experience for our current and future students. Science explains and predicts everything that is happening inside and around us. It informs our daily lives and the future, some of which will be beyond the scope of what can even be imagined. Exploration, at a micro and macro level, will help unpack the through lines between all that we observe and learn. For our students, Science is not only about solving problems. Rather, it is about encountering puzzles, challenges and conundrums and developing the strategies, dispositions and structures to assist in decoding these to find meaning and clarification to better understand and solve them. The various strands of Science can be studied in isolation and collaboratively to really specialise in one area or make wider connections and discoveries. Science is theoretical yet creative, serious but fun, predictable though surprising. That is why we love it! Emily Donaldson Head of Science
LAUNCH LAB
GROUND FLOOR - LIBRARY & MAKER SPACE BIALIK FOUNDATION
BUILDING FEATURES State-of-the-art learning laboratories Outdoor ‘life labs’ Larger Makerspace Breakout room for students to engage in long-term practical experiments Central atrium with collaborative work benches and space for cross-class investigations Outdoor planted terrace connecting to the Kitchen Garden Rooftop observatory Indoor piazza linking the Library and Launch Lab Located at the intersection of primary, middle and senior schools
FIRST FLOOR - LAUNCH LAB Plans correct at time of printing and subject to change.
SUSTAINING GROWTH The existing Science laboratories will be transformed to create a new hub for our growing Middle School. The plans include a flexible collaborative space for our Middle School community to come together for cross-class and multi-year initiatives including Jewish Life events, Visual and Performing Arts, Wellbeing opportunities, ETGAR and Entrepreneurship Week. The addition of four new classrooms will allow for greater flexibility of timetabling while supporting a sustainable growth model for the future of Bialik.
BIALIK FOUNDATION
Included in the scope of Launch Lab is a multi-year collaborative study with Harvard University’s Dr Daniel Wilson. The research project is designed to support teachers and students to develop their own collaborative teaching and learning practices in new spaces, so that the environment becomes central to - and a catalyst for - the learning process. Too often, schools invest in new buildings without investing in pedagogy. We are maximising the impact of this project by investing in our teachers and their teaching - the benefit of which will be felt by our entire community of learners.
LAUNCH LAB
BIALIK COLLEGE FOUNDATION LEVELS OF MEMBERSHIP VISIONARY
$1M + PAT R O N
$500,000 – $999,999
OPPORTUNITIES TO SUPPORT Bialik has been built on the generosity of our community of supporters. As a not-for-profit organisation, every dollar we receive is invested into our school and community, ensuring we continue to provide a worldclass Jewish education for all who seek it. This is an opportunity to invest in Bialik and our world-class approach to learning. Launch Lab will inspire both students and educators, its positive impact will travel throughout the school. Naming opportunities are available from $54,000 and may be pledged over a number of years. Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible and will contribute towards Foundation Membership. For more information please contact our Foundation Director Tanya Cherny on 9822 7871 or email foundation@bialik.vic.edu.au.
B E N E FA C T O R
$250,000 – $499,999 PA R T N E R
$108,000 – $249,999 FE LLOW
$36,000 – $107,999 MEMBER
$18,000 – $35,999 BIALIK FOUNDATION
IN YOUR ELEMENT The Periodic Table of Elements is the foundation of the Scientific world. The whole earth and everything within it comprises of just 118 unique elements. Help us lay the foundations of Bialik’s Launch Lab and be among just 118 supporters to name your element on our Launch Lab Periodic Table. Our 3D art installation will contain just one of each element so please contact us now to secure your element. Elements start at $1800 or $50/month for 3 years,” and are tax deductible. This is an opportunity to become part of the fabric of the building and invest in a project to inspire our children to become the change makers of tomorrow. Visit inyourelement.bialik.vic.edu.au or contact our Foundation Office on 9822 7981 or foundation@bialik.vic.edu.au
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JOIN US ON THE JOURNEY LAUNCH LAB 2021 BIALIK FOUNDATION